Hippos One Step Closer to Endangered Species Act Protections

​worldanimalnews.com/hippos-move-step-closer-to-endangered-species-act-protections/

The United States Fish & Wildlife Services, announced last week that the common hippo may warrant endangered species act protections. The announcement comes after a collection of animal advocacy groups sent intentions to sue the USFWS on World Hippo Day for their inaction in meeting deadlines to assess the hippo and its need for protections. The USFWS now has four days to assess and determine whether the hippo requires ESA protections. While they will likely miss that deadline, the hippo is still on track to receive necessary protections.

There are anywhere from 115, 000 - 148, 000 common hippos remaining in the wild, a number that has dropped significantly in the past 20 years. Hippos in the wild face many perils to their survival including habitat loss, human conflict / retaliatory conflict, drought, poaching, and legal hunting for sport. The United States is one of the leading contributors to the decline of hippos, having imported parts from over 9, 000 hippos between 2009 - 2018. Hippo parts imported including leather for clothes, boots, & purses, teeth, ivory, carvings, and trophies including heads on mounts. Considering the many natural perils hippos face, humans should NOT be contributing further to their demise through legal hunting for sport. That's where the Endangered Species Act would play a crucial role.

Issuing Endangered Species Act protections to hippos would be life-saving for the species. These protections would nearly ban all imports of hippo parts, increase awareness of the perils hippos face, and increase necessary funding to aid in conservation. These protections are absolutely crucial in protecting a species. In fact, Endangered Species Act protections have helped a whopping 99% of the species listed, a near perfect track record. Without these protections, hippos will continue to be hunted for sport, have their heads mounted walls across the world, and plunge further towards inevitable extinction.

I'll update as more information becomes available. Let's get hippos protected under the Endangered Species Act!

HAPPY VEG